Coal spill feared to be a risk to aquatic life in Burnaby's Silver Creek

CN has so far refused to release an estimate of how much coal spilled into Silver Creek in Burnaby when seven of its cars derailed a week ago Saturday, three of them spilling their contents into the creek.

CN has so far refused to release an estimate of how much coal spilled into Silver Creek in Burnaby when seven of its cars derailed a week ago Saturday, three of them spilling their contents into the creek.

CN has so far refused to release an estimate of how much coal spilled into Silver Creek in Burnaby when seven of its cars derailed a week ago Saturday, three of them spilling their contents into the creek.

CN has so far refused to release an estimate of how much coal spilled into Silver Creek in Burnaby when seven of its cars derailed a week ago Saturday, three of them spilling their contents into the creek.

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METRO VANCOUVER -- John Preissl can hardly believe his eyes. The Burnaby resident and amateur nature photographer walks the shoreline of Burnaby Lake pretty much every day and is disturbed to see that sediments and coal have created a small island at the mouth of Silver Creek where endangered western painted turtles are hibernating.

A set of logs utilized by the turtles outside of winter sits beached on the new island.

“This is brand new, never been here,” the 51-year-old painter and finish carpenter remarks. “It’s sad. It shocks me. The turtles are right underneath, wintering in the mud.”

A Canadian Pacific train operated by a Canadian National crew on CN tracks derailed a week ago Saturday just north of Burnaby Lake, spilling metallurgical coal into rain-swollen Silver Creek.

Fine particles of coal as well as golf-ball sized chunks are still visible throughout the fish-bearing creek, as is an unsightly surface layer in backwaters lined with bulrushes and grasses.

Sediments and coal carried downstream in the rushing waters created the approximate three-by-nine metre island in Burnaby Lake next to a sign warning the public to keep out due to nesting turtles.

The question is: What’s the impact of the coal on aquatic life?

Otto Langer is a retired senior habitat biologist with the federal fisheries department whose experience with coal dates back to 1969 at Roberts Bank near Tsawwassen; he later provided expert testimony in coal discharge cases in the Kootenays and Tumbler Ridge.

He said that metallurgical coal is fractured, with sharp edges — “a bit like glass or crushed hard rock” — and can cause problems if breathed in through fish gills or the lungs of other animals.

“The gill responds by producing mucus and that coating in turn can be self defeating in that it can clog up with more coal dust,” he said, adding that gills can also swell up and restrict breathing.

CN spokesperson Emily Hamer said that a consultant has been hired to conduct an environmental survey of the effect of the coal spill and recommend remediation as necessary on Silver Creek, Burnaby Lake, and the Brunette River, all of which are fish-bearing.

She said CN is “committed to taking all measures possible to remediate the impact of the spill,” but refused to release an estimate of how much coal spilled in the derailment or provide information on the effects of coal on aquatic life based on CN’s past experience.

CP spokesman Ed Greenberg also refused to estimate how much coal had been spilled.

Public affairs officer David Karn released a statement on behalf of the Ministry of Environment saying the coal, bound for Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver, “is not expected to have an impact on water quality” but that it’s overall environmental impact remains to be determined.

Preissl said that last week he found the carcass of a chum salmon in Silver Creek, evidence of the species’ comeback in the watershed.

Close to 500 chum migrated up the Brunette River this past fall, then made their way up the fish ladder at Cariboo Dam at the east end of Burnaby Lake and into the lake itself to spawn in tributary creeks.

The watershed is also home to the endangered Nooksack Dace.

During a tour with The Vancouver Sun, Preissl reached his hands into the coal-laced sediments midway down Silver Creek, just downstream of Cariboo Industrial Park, and wondered what the future held for fish.

“We’ve got two inches of that garbage, right there,” he said. “We’ve definitely got a problem here.”

Seven cars of a 152-car train carrying coal derailed; four of the cars stayed upright, but three tipped over spilling coal. The train’s two crew members were unhurt. The derailment occurred on the most southerly of two sets of tracks near Government Street and Cariboo Road, where Silver Creek emerges from a culvert beneath a Costco parking lot.

Preissel said he walked the entire six kilometres of the Brunette River below the dam on Tuesday and it looked in good shape except for a patch of coal in marshes west of North Road. Heavy rains may have helped in flushing coal through the system at the time of the spill.

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Coal spill feared to be a risk to aquatic life in Burnaby's Silver Creek

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